By Nate Owen

The Northeastern women’s track team competed in three meets over the past few weeks, including the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship, held April 21 in Richmond, Va.

Northeastern took second place in the meet, finishing with 129.5 points. William ‘ Mary took first with a score of 174.5 points. The Huskies set CAA records in two events. Junior thrower Zara Northover broke the shot record with a toss of 51 feet 7.75 inches. She also placed seventh in the hammer, discus and javelin. Freshman Olivia Kalinowska set the pole vault record with a height of 127 feet 6 inches.

In addition, freshman distance runner Kristie Gagnon broke the Northeastern record in the 10,000-meter, as she finished third overall in the meet with a time of 37:46.06.

Sophomore Tramaine Shaw became the first Husky to win an event at the CAA Championship, winning the long jump with a leap of 19 feet 4.75 inches. Shaw was Northeastern’s top individual scorer, as she also took second in the 100-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 14.26 seconds. She was also the runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:101.82.

Northeastern fared well in the sprinting events, as senior Jordine Kimbrel took second in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes, with times of 12.15 and 24.18 seconds, respectively. Sophomore Alison Warren was the runner-up in the 400-meter, with a time of 55.87 seconds. The top six finishers in the 800 included a trio of Huskies, as junior Erin Ballard finished second with a time of 2:12.6, sophomore Laura McCloskey finished fourth with a time of 2:14.93, and junior Natalee Pennicooke came in sixth with a time of 2:16.78.

While the second place finish in the meet brought praise from many other coaches in the conference, Coach Hart didn’t share their optimism.

“According to other coaches, they thought this was a tremendous meet [for Northeastern]” he said. “They think that we bring a lot to the conference. I don’t share their opinion yet.”

Hart said the number of injuries suffered by Northeastern robbed the team of its depth. He also said he felt the inability to train outdoors for much of the early part of the season hindered the Huskies as well.

“There is a big transition [going from] indoors to outdoors,” he said. Hart said he sees the team where he wanted it to be two weeks ago.

Despite this, Hart said he was encouraged by the performance of some of the younger athletes, particularly Gagnon and Kalinowska.

“[Their performance] was a tremendous confidence booster for them,” he said.

Northeastern competed in two other meets following the CAA Championships. Northover competed in the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, taking fourth in the shot put with a throw of 50 feet 4 inches. In the Brown Springtime Invitational, held in Smithtown, R.I., the Huskies placed first in three events. The 4×800 relay team took first with a time of 9:13.57. Senior Laura Chmielewski won the pole vault with a height of 11 feet 11.75 inches and sophomore thrower Patricia Harrison won the shot put with a throw of 42 feet 6.25 inches.